Jesus pretty clearly told people that their relationship with God(through him) was supposed to be the most important one in their lives. It's even more explicit in Mathew. Family was extremely important to the Jews and was a guide for a ton of society and how it worked. Almost confucian in its very specific prescriptions for behavior towards relatives. So telling people that they must be willing to turn away from that to turn towards God was a pretty revolutionary thing to say. The Jews thought that you would become more right with God by following His rules, and a lot of those had to do with family. Now Jesus says, no, forget that, God is now willing to be your family and its to him that your loyalties should lie.
Very hard words to live by. Like many of his other hits, "give everything away", "Stop worrying about your material needs", "Forgive everyone or God won't forgive you", and the number 1 -"love thy neighbor as thyself"- which forces you to not only change how you treat and think about others, but also the way you think of yourself.
Jesus was not into giving an easy road.
@7 the word used in the greek is "miseo", and "miseo" just means "hate". As for Luke mistranslating the word "sone" from a Hebrew source, where the "rejection" argument is grounded, it seems unlikely; "sone"'s primary meaning is also "hate", so even though it can also be used to mean "reject" it would be strange to translate a word that primarily means "hate" in Hebrew to a word that exclusively means "hate" in Greek if he meant to say "reject".
@15
How do you feel about Newton?
Also, honest question, are you a biblical scholar? It seems that many times I post something about religion, you criticize it, but don't offer me anything else conversationally. It's more of a "wrong" without any input. If you have some other angle you think I should see, please bring it to the table.
@21
Personally, I think its very foolish to take anything in the Bible "literally". Words can have multiple meanings, the bible was authored by people with different cultural idioms and references than us, and it has changed over time. My family has a VERY old bible (1582), and some stories in there aren't in the modern bible, and vice-verse.
Bottom line is that God doesn't speak English or Spanish or Greek or Latin or whatever. He speaks through the heart.
Proverbs 26:11
he who has ears had better hear!
Very hard words to live by. Like many of his other hits, "give everything away", "Stop worrying about your material needs", "Forgive everyone or God won't forgive you", and the number 1 -"love thy neighbor as thyself"- which forces you to not only change how you treat and think about others, but also the way you think of yourself.
Jesus was not into giving an easy road.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
How do you feel about Newton?
Also, honest question, are you a biblical scholar? It seems that many times I post something about religion, you criticize it, but don't offer me anything else conversationally. It's more of a "wrong" without any input. If you have some other angle you think I should see, please bring it to the table.
Personally, I think its very foolish to take anything in the Bible "literally". Words can have multiple meanings, the bible was authored by people with different cultural idioms and references than us, and it has changed over time. My family has a VERY old bible (1582), and some stories in there aren't in the modern bible, and vice-verse.
Bottom line is that God doesn't speak English or Spanish or Greek or Latin or whatever. He speaks through the heart.
Louis Armstrong.